The Asian/Pacific markets leaned to the downside. Japan posted a gain; Hong Kong, Indonesia and Taiwan posted losses. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are mixed and somewhat quiet. Greece, Russia, Norway, Portugal and the Czech Republic are up; Denmark, Finland and Bulgaria are down. Futures in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil is up; copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.

Very quietly, while the market has posted big gains the last few days in route to the S&P closing at a new all-time high, oil has gotten above its 50-day MA. Crude has been a drag. If the group moves up, there won’t be much to hold the market back.

Stock headlines from barchart.com…

Apple (AAPL -0.40%) is down -0.5% in pre-market trading on a less than enthusiastic response to the company’s unveiling of its new iPhone late Tuesday.

Rockwell Collins (COL +0.12%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at Baird.

EOG Resources (EOG +0.61%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ at Morgan Stanley with a price target of $106.

US Foods Holding (USFD +2.03%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ at Barclays with a price target of $32.

DowDuPont (DWDP +2.50%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Cowen with a price target of $80.

Nordstrom (JWN +0.74%) rallied 9% in after-hours trading on a report that private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners may help fund a buyout of Nordstrom,

Centene (CNC +0.38%) jumped nearly 7% in after-hours trading after it purchased Fidelis Care for $3.75 billion, a deal that will allow it to enter New York’s health-insurance market.

Accra Therapeutics (AKCA +1.33%) rose 3% in after-hours trading after it filed a new drug submission to Health Canada for volanessorsen, an investigational medicine for the treatment of familial chylomicron syndrome.

Micron (MU +2.54%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $40.